Merajbanu Lost Her Home To The 2002 Gujarat Riots, And Her Son To Gau Rakshaks: Report

My question is: can you take a man’s life for cows?

Fourteen years after she lost her hut in the deadly religious violence which ravaged Gujarat in 2002, Merajbanu Mew has lost her 29-year-old son to cow vigilantism. That is what the Muslim woman told The Indian Expressabout the death of her son, Mohammed Ayyub, who was beaten so brutally by "gau rakshaks" on September 12 that he succumbed to his injuries four days later in hospital.

Ayyub's aunt Kherunnisa Mew told The Indian Express: "My question is: can you take a man's life for cows? If Ayyub was doing something illegal, he should have been handed over to the police."

Merajbanu said that her hut in Shah-e-Alam, a settlement in Ahmedabad, was burnt down in the 2002 communal riot, forcing her shift to Imdanagar, which is also in the city. After her husband, she singlehandedly raised her two boys, and now she will have to take care of Ayyub's wife and children.